August 19, 2014

Voting to pick the Nespresso Variations Flavors for 2014 is going on right now at a mini-site Nespresso has set up. Only the top 3 out of 5 flavors will make it to our cups this Fall, so make sure you go and vote.

Hazelnut Cookie

Apple Crumble

Berry Cupcake

Lemon Pie

Chocolate Mint

All of these flavors are inspired from desserts that we all know and love. We’d love to try Lemon Pie, and also Apple Crumble. The other flavors have all been done by others in the single serve coffee community. We do have to say Berry Cupcake could be an interesting chocolate meets berry twist.

August 11, 2014

We’ve been working our way through Nespresso’s VertuoLine capsule line-up for the past several weeks and while we tried to find meaning behind the capsule names, we just kept thinking in the back of our minds that they were named after would-be Italian X-Men characters. From the strongest espresso in the line-up (Diavolitto) to the strongest coffee in the line-up (Stormio), the names seem to invoke a sense of darkness & intrigue. Whatever the inspiration for the naming may be, we decided to forge ahead with today’s review of Nespresso's VertuoLine Stormio Capsules. Would the strongest coffee be as strong as the strongest espresso on the VertuoLine system? Let’s find out.

July 28, 2014

We continue our VertuoLine capsule reviews today by checking out one of their strongest intensity espressos, the Nespresso VertuoLine Diavolitto Capsules. The name was the first thing that piqued our interest and while we don’t know how to read or speak Italian, we got a basic connotation of what was inferred. A quick bit of experimentation on Google Translate quickly proved us right… uh… well, sort of. While Diavolitto is itself not an Italian word (as far as we’re aware) it is derived from diavol, which is apparently the Italian Romanian word for devil.

July 21, 2014

When we reviewed our first VertuoLine capsules a while back (the hazelnut flavored Hazelino), we noted how the flavoring tasted different and a bit off from what we’re used to seeing in a conventional flavored coffee produced from the likes of a Keurig or Tassimo system. Since we ALWAYS take our coffee black during reviews in order to notice any subtle flavor notes which might be hiding in the cup, we pretty much ignored Nespresso’s recommendations to also try their VertuoLine capsules with added creamer.

That was apparently a big mistake. Once we followed their suggestions, we noticed that the strange almost chemical hazelnut taste was replaced by a more subdued hazelnut flavor and that the harsher oily notes in the coffee became greatly reduced to more normal levels. It completely transformed the entire tasting experience to a degree we weren’t expecting. In hindsight, we’d like to offer an apology of sorts to Nespresso and would like to point out that while our original score of 91 - Exceptional still stands for the Hazelino capsules when taken black, we’d have to give a slightly higher score of 94 - Exceptional once you add creamer into the mix (sorry, we still can’t get used to the odd foreign hazelnut flavor).

July 15, 2014

Did you recently buy & register a Nespresso VertuoLine machine using your Nespresso Club account on Nespresso’s website? If so, you might be interested to learn that you could have a special offer waiting for you at your closest Nespresso Boutique retail store. During a recent visit to the Nespresso Counter within The Bay department store in Quebec City, Quebec we were reminded that we were still eligible for a welcome offer which was showing up on our account. (We refuse to call it a Boutique since it’s literally a counter inside a department store).

July 10, 2014

The Nespresso Inissia Espresso Maker comes in 3 different colors, but is only sold at one low price - $99. This makes the Nespresso Inissia Espresso Maker a very affordable way to get into Nespresso espresso and single serve coffee. The machine features easy insertion and ejection of capsules, and is made for use with Nespresso coffee capsules.

July 7, 2014

When Nespresso first introduced the VertuoLine brewer to North America earlier this year, we were a bit caught by surprise as up until now, Nespresso was known primarily for their premium line of espresso machines which they’ve now dubbed OriginalLine. This marked the first time Nespresso had decided to focus on conventional coffee (while still retaining the ability to produce espressos from the same machine).

An 8oz coffee from Nespresso? Given how superb some of their OriginalLine espresso capsules have been in the past, they certainly had our attention. Seeing as how coffee extraction is different than espresso extraction, Nespresso had to come up with a new way to extract brewed coffee from the capsules and they did so in a way which isn’t that common in the single serve coffee market… centrifugal force. Dubbed Centrifusion, the brewer has a laser which reads a barcode ring around the inner lip of the capsule and this code determines everything from water amounts to spin rate in order to deliver optimized results for each capsule.

June 6, 2014

The Limited Edition Cauca Nespresso capsules are going to make your morning a bit brighter. This coffee produced is both juicy and fruity, and the Cauca Grand Cru is grown in the green, rolling mountainous region of Cauca in Colombia, warmed by the equatorial sunshine. These Arabica beans have been diligently processed to highlight the genuine fruity-winey aromas and juicy taste, and make for an exhilarating coffee experience.

The Limited Edition Cauca capsules will work in all regular Nespresso machines. These capsules are not available for the Nespresso Vertuoline of Nespresso makers.

May 30, 2014

Bicafe by Espressione Paixao Capsule are compatible for use in Nespresso machines. These capsules have been reviewed by one of our Single Serve Coffee Forums members here and the decaf version here. So far impressions have been good for these capsules, and it's nice to see some alternatives to only being able to order direct from Nespresso. These capsules are made in Portugal.

Jim: I purchased a opus coffee maker and liked the sample read moreStephanie: I would like to know why grocery stores do not read moreNancy: I want to buy this lid read moreXelleld: I don't think they sell it nationwide. It only seems read moreBatman: I agree! The Junior Mints K cup is the best read more